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Maradona’s Argentina Has Little to Worry About

Lionel Messi, mounting an attack against France on Wednesday, scored Argentina’s second goal at the Stade Vélodrome in Marseille. (Guillaume Horcajuelo/European Pressphoto Agency)

INTERNATIONAL SCORES

UEFA Qualifiers

Ireland 2, Georgia 1

Malta 0, Albania 0

N. Ireland 3, San Marnio 0

Asia Qualifiers

Japan 0, Australia 0

Bahrain 1, Uzbekistan 0

Iran 1, South Korea 1

Friendlies

Spain 2, England 0

Portugal 1, Finland 0

Tunisia 1, Netherlands 1

Norway 1, Germany 0

Greece 1, Denmark 1

Croatia 1, Romania 1

Turkey 1, Ivory Coast 1

Morocco 0, Czech Rep. 0

Israel 1, Hungary 0

Poland 1, Wales 0

Egypt 2, Ghana 2

Cameroon 3, Guinea 1

Chile 1, South Africa 0

BUENOS AIRES — Diego Maradona is definitely putting something into his players’ coffee. France was bigger, stronger and occasionally faster than Argentina on Wednesday in Marseilles, but the Argentines ran like rabbits until their talented front line won the day. Goals from Jonás Gutiérrez and Lionel Messi, ever-closer to the title of world’s best player, allowed Maradona to celebrate for the second time in two matches as Argentina’s coach.

Once again, Argentina’s diminutive strikers made the difference. Shortly before halftime, Sergio Agüero danced to the touchline on the right side of goal before lofting a high cross that was picked up on the left wing by Gutiérrez, who fired it past the unlucky hands of a diving Steve Mandanda. Then Carlos Tévez, who entered for Agüero on 81 minutes, slid a midfield ball to Messi, who recalled his boss’s exploits by cutting through a clutch of French defenders and firing a powerful shot past Mandanda.

The French had few offensive ideas to counter the Argentines’ creativity, but Raymond Domenech, the French coach whose job has been under threat since the last World Cup, did his best to contain Messi. He gave the 21-year-old Argentine a personal marker in the person of Eric Abidal, who knew Messi well from the training pitch at Barcelona. Early in the game, however, Messi shifted from the right side into the center, where he lured Real Madrid’s Lassana Diarra into a series of ugly tackles. Domenech, if he still has a job later this week, will need to think seriously about how to improve his team’s passing and deliver the ball to his constellation of striking stars.

Argentina’s defense had its own problem in Emiliano Papa, a 26-year-old left-back who has never played outside his home country. The Velez Sarsfield man drew cheers from the Argentine fans by driving forward in the second half, but otherwise he was clearly out of his depth, losing more balls than any of his compatriots. Clearly, filling the left-back spot is no easy proposition, even for Argentina.

Meanwhile, Maradona’s captain, Javier Mascherano, almost created more headaches – quite literally – when a clash with France’s Yoann Gourcuff ended with the two players forehead-to-forehead. But the red mist lifted as quickly as it had descended, with Mascherano avoiding an expulsion… this time.

All told, however, Maradona had little to worry about. France’s famous forwards – Thierry Henry, Nicolas Anelka and Franck Ribery – rarely got past the central partnership of Gabriel Heinze and the stalwart Martín Demichelis. When Anelka did, in the first half, Argentine keeper Juan Pablo Carrizo met him at the edge of the 18-yard box to defuse the danger.

The coach doesn’t have to worry about the absence of playmaker Juan Román Riquelme, either. The duo of Fernando Gago and Mascherano distributed the ball quickly to the wings or sent long passes into space that were more often than not snapped up by the speedy Messi and Agüero. Both halves ended with the Argentines stringing dozens of passes together as the French chased haplessly, the Argentine fans chanting “Olé!” all the way.

And Maradona, who prowled the sideline in a heavy anorak for much of the match, barking orders at his players, did not spare his opponent’s blushes. His voice hoarse after the final whistle, the coach indulged in his customary frankness in an interview with Argentina’s TyC Sports: “We started playing the way we knew how, and at times we really left France looking ridiculous.”

Why? Why? Why? A previous comment (by Josh) calls the first sentence “unfortunate.” I say it’s offensive. Why tarnish the image of the whole Argentine team with the OBVIOUS reminder of Maradona’s pathetic past. If the article went on to say Argentina didn’t play well, then it would be just insulting. But the actual content of the story shows it was simply a low blow aggravated by poor journalism. Quite surprising of such a gifted writer.

No intentional low blow intended, apologies if some of you took it that way. It was just a figure of speech – and an appropriate one, if you ask me. I’ve been watching Argentina for many years, and they haven’t played with that much energy since the opening round of World Cup 2006. (Besides, who takes drugs through their coffee?)

I would worry. Argentina produced very little game in the first half, and had it not been for Jonás Gutierrez´s goal, the game would have been a dull one. The assumption that argentina wouldn´t miss Riquelme is completely mistaken, for this playmaker can definitely change the course of any game and create interesting plays throughout one. Argentina only created about five or six goal attempts, and that is about the average Riquelme produces on a bad day. Riquelme isn´t irreplacesable, but he is probably one of the best “enganches” in history, and definitely the best in pro foot ball, er soccer, nowadays. And Messi well, he plays alot better in Barcelona…

Although Diego Maradona blurted out a demeaning comment towards the great team of France, I still love him to death. He is God to us and Messi our Jesus, (this coming from the atheist that I am). So they will be forgiven anytime anything like that occurs.
We’re showing some of the spark that we had in past years, but we still have a lot of work ahead of us.
Messi is growing as a person and Maradona, I think, is showing him the way. Don’t forget that Maradona didn’t have someone of his caliber impacting his life as a youngster.
As far as the number 10 belonging to Riquelme, Maradona is going to make Messi really work for it. The 10 means a lot to Argentina, and it is part of the word D10S (God) and I’m sure Messi sees that now.
Aguero, tevez in another astral plane. Aguero got tired of making goals for Independiente of Avellaneda, and tevez… Well…. He’s a mean machine.
Tevez is to Argentina what Ribery is to France.

As far as comments about doping by Maradona… Well, how about this? He is the only player in history who got “randomly chosen” twice in a row. Apparently the first time they weren’t able to frame him, but they succeeded the second time. After all, FIFA’s president at the time was brasilian.

Argentina has too many good players to chose from. Diego Maradona is in the right place at the right time. The coach needs to give back something to the game which gave him so much as player. Best wishes to Diego.

Daniel Altman is so much biased towards Argentina that he did not even list
Brazil 6 x 2 Portugal
among the friendly.
This is a case of VERY BAD informed reporter. Or just an usual NYT expert.
Nothing to worry about:

At the Palms on Wed. some one said that he will bet on Hitlers team..and sorry to say it did creat a laugh…Even though I read about Argentinas teams being great, I like the youth in the German team..This will be my first bet on any soccer game and I will put $50 on Germany on Saturday..I am starting to enjoy Soccer..not that I know to much about it with those cards..But it takes a strong person to do the jumps and what have you that players of both sides do…Let the games begin..I am for any replay down at the Goal line…Nev. the Greek from Las Vegas.

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Goal, The New York Times soccer blog, will report on news and features from the world of soccer and around the Web. Times editors and reporters will follow international tournaments and provide analysis of games. There will be interviews with players, coaches and notable soccer fans, as well as a weekly blog column by Red Bulls forward Jozy Altidore. Readers can discuss Major League Soccer, foreign leagues and other issues with fellow soccer fans.